On New Year's Day afternoon an estimated 2500 people were on Stanwell Park Beach, and in the water. A lot of them were not great swimmers or did not have a great knowledge of the surf, and to only have to perform 7 rescues including 1 at the northern end of the beach (Blake Drysdale and Tom Dewey) was awesome. For a patrol full of "Beachies" to see them on a board or with a tube was a great sight.
Patrol members treated over 140 blue bottle stings, including 1 case requiring an ambulance. There were so many cases treated that the hot water nearly ran.
Appreciationfor the effort that some of patrol members made to eventually get to the patrol due to the fire at Burning Palms, and thank you for persisting. It may have been a different situation if you guys were not able to get back from Era.
Also, thanks to Carl Williams, Toby Lea and Mitch Baillie for hanging after the morning patrol for a while until the full patrol was on the beach.
Special mention to Ella Saberton who manned the First Aid Room early in the afternoon treating many Blue Bottle stings, well done for an SRC Holder.
When the patrol finally got off the beach at 6:30pm they were confident that everyone had played their part in the day, and kept Stanwell Park Beach safe.
Morning Patrol - Patrol 4 - Carl Williams (Captain), Stephen Scullion, Mitchell Baillie, Toby Lea, Ashley Doran, Tasmin Gilmour, Joshua Lea, Andrew Perrin, Edward Pickard, and Thomas Pickard
Afternoon Patrol - Patrol 5 - Steven McDonald (Captain), Laura Humphries (Vice Captain), Terry Wood, Daniel Robberds, Courtney Blackwell, Erin Blackwell, Tiarne Blackwell, Thomas Dewey, Blake Drysdale, Courtney Overell, Ella Saberton and Laura Shorter
Efforts by life savers on Illawarra Beaches was recognised in a ABC News Article on 02 January 2013.
